How to open locked doors in Hidden Cavern in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t hold your hand when it comes to solving puzzles. And, even worse, it’s more than happy to let you fail out of an attempt. An example is the Hidden Cavern, a small dungeon with plenty of locked doors.

Let’s open this sucker up and reap the rewards. Here’s how to open the doors in the Hidden Cavern of Dragon’s Dogma 2.

Where is the Hidden Cavern in Dragon’s Dogma 2?

The vaguely named Hidden Cavern in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is found by following the trail northwest of Vermund. It’s to the left of the small range of hills south of Melve, meaning you can only get to it by approaching from the south. You can also approach it to the west from the Malachite Forest, though that’s far from any oxcart trail or portcrystal.

This middling island doesn’t have much outside of the Hidden Cavern and a bandit camp or two. The Cavern itself is on the northern tip of it and is isolated from anything else interesting. It is a divot in the ground to the south of a looping trail.

How to open the locked doors in the Hidden Cavern

The key to opening the barred doors in the Hidden Cavern is the explosive enemies and bombs scattered about. These doors have wooden locks that fall apart if they take any significant amount of damage. However, they can be a bit sticky if you don’t know what you’re doing.

• If a door has a wooden plank facing towards you:
  • Physical damage, like Weapon Attacks, can punch right through these doors most of the time. However, they can sometimes be a bit stingy. If they aren’t opening for you, the following options guarantee you access.
    • Use the oozes that melt through the doors by lighting them on fire. These oozes explode violently when exposed to flame, such as from a Mage’s Flagration. If they explode near enough to the doors, they’ll blow off the wooden lock and let you access the loot.
    • Explosive barrels are also capable of knocking off the lock, as long as they hit from the right side. There are a few barrels scattered around the room. Carry them near the lock and chuck them. We recommend putting your Pawns to “Wait” during this time so they don’t walk in front of you at a bad time.

• If the door doesn’t have a wooden lock facing you:
  • Utilize enemies to destroy the lock for you. These are a few explosive zombies at the bottom of the slope at the back end of the dungeon. Use magick attacks, like the Mystic Spearhand‘s Rebouted Bolt or arrows to lure these portly zombies near the bottommost gate. Fire attacks that clip through the door can cause them to explode, blowing the lock off for you.
    • If you have no fire attacks here, don’t fret—these ghouls can break through the locks with ease, but they’ll need an incentive. Aggro the zombies in the way detailed above. Once the zombie is lured, bring yourself and your Pawns away from the door so the zombie punches through it.

• For the locked door near the start of the dungeon, there’s only one intended way to crack it:
  • Head through the southwestern locked door—with wood facing you, easily taken off by slimes, barrels, or physical attacks. This leads to a hallway that curves up and around to an overhead view of the locked western room. Throw down an explosive barrel or two towards where the door is and you’ll unlock it quickly, thanks to the other explosive barrels in there.
  • Alternatively, you can drop into this room from the above path. This almost kills you, but you can then loot the room and leave the dungeon without further issue.

Rewards for clearing the Hidden Cavern in Dragon’s Dogma 2

By clearing the Hidden Cavern and opening the locked doors, you’ll be rewarded with a heap of gold and some materials. This dungeon’s primary reward is quite a lot of early-game loot in the form of gold and gems, but also a single Archistaff worth using until midgame.

This is a pretty good score of early-game Dragon’s Dogma 2 loot, assuming you have some fire damage to defeat the oozes with. For the amount of gold you gather, it’s well worth your time. Be sure to mine the walls in the chamber, the back corridor, and the side path to get a decent sum of Silver and Gold—perfect for weapon upgrades.